Congo polls set for July 30

Congo will hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections on July 30, the first multi-party polls for more than four decades in the central African country, the electoral commission has said.

30 Apr 2006 21:06 GMT

The polls expectedly will draw a line under a five-year war

"The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) is publishing the calendar ... for the first round of the presidential election and the legislative elections for the national assembly, which will be organised on July 30, 2006," the CEI said in a statement.

The elections in the vast and mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo had officially been scheduled for June 18 after being postponed from 2005 but another postponement had been considered inevitable because of logistical delays.

The polls are intended to draw a line under a five-year war and ensuing humanitarian crisis that drew in six neighbouring countries and has killed at least 4 million people.